Today's Scripture Readings

Saints, Feasts, and Readings for 7/24/2013

Prayer Before Reading Holy Scripture

O Master Who loves mankind, illuminate our hearts with the pure light of Your divine knowledge and open the eyes of our mind to understand the teachings of Your Gospel. Instill in us also the fear of Your blessed commandments, that we may overcome all carnal desires, entering upon a spiritual life and understanding and acting in all things according to Your holy will. For You are the enlightenment of our souls and bodies, O Christ God, and to You we give glory together with Your eternal Father and Your all-holy, gracious and life-giving Spirit, now and ever and forever. Amen.

Epistle Reading: Romans 15:7-16

Therefore receive one another, just as Christ also received
us, to the glory of God.

Now I say that Jesus Christ has become a servant to the
circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made to the
fathers,

and that the Gentiles might glorify God for His mercy, as it
is written: "For this reason I will confess to You among the Gentiles, and
sing to Your name."

And again he says: "Rejoice, O Gentiles, with His people!"

And again: "Praise the LORD, all you Gentiles! laud Him, all
you peoples!"

And again, Isaiah says: "There shall be a root of Jesse; and
He who shall rise to reign over the Gentiles, in Him the Gentiles shall
hope."

Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in
believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Now I myself am confident concerning you, my brethren, that
you also are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, able also to
admonish one another.

Nevertheless, brethren, I have written more boldly to you on
some points, as reminding you, because of the grace given to me by God,

that I might be a minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles,
ministering the gospel of God, that the offering of the Gentiles might be
acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.

Gospel Reading: Matthew 12:38-45

Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered, saying, "
Teacher, we want to see a sign from You."

But He answered and said to them, "An evil and adulterous
generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the
sign of the prophet Jonah.

"For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly
of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in
the heart of the earth.

"The men of Nineveh will rise in the judgment with this
generation and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah;
and indeed a greater than Jonah is here.

"The queen of the South will rise up in the judgment with
this generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to
hear the wisdom of Solomon; and indeed a greater than Solomon is here.

"When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through
dry places, seeking rest, and finds none.

"Then he says, 'I will return to my house from which I
came.' And when he comes, he finds it empty, swept, and put in order.

"Then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more
wicked than himself, and they enter and dwell there; and the last state of
that man is worse than the first. So shall it also be with this wicked
generation."

Saints and Feasts

Euphemia the Great Martyr; The All-Praised Olga, Equal-to-the-Apostles, Princess of Kiev; Nektarios the New Martyr; St. Nicodemos the New Martyr of Mt. Athos

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The Old Calendar readings are from the New King James Version of the Bible.